Air Tractor Marks 5,000th Aircraft
Air Tractor employees, customers, civic leaders and aviation executives gathered on Thursday, May 28 to celebrate a milestone more than 50 years in the making as the company delivered the 5,000th aircraft built at its Olney headquarters.
The aircraft, an AT-502B agricultural airplane, was purchased by Brazilian aerial application operator Dorilino Prediger through Air Tractor dealer AgSur Aviones. It joins three other Air Tractor airplanes at Mr. Prediger’s company in Sorriso, in Mato Grosso, Brazil.
During the ceremony, Air Tractor President Jim Hirsch presented a giant ceremonial key to Prediger’s representatives, symbolically handing over the aircraft before a crowd of employees and guests.
“What began with the radial- engine AT-300s and AT301s has grown into a line of eight turboprop aircraft because customers have continued to place confidence in the airplanes and the company behind them,” Mr. Hirsch said.
The celebration included a luncheon, tours of the manufacturing facility and a group photograph in front of the milestone aircraft. Representatives from Pratt & Whitney Canada, which supplies the PT6 turbine engines used in Air Tractor aircraft, attended the
See Air Tractor on Page event and presented Mr. Hirsch and Mark Mc-Donald, president and CEO of Thrush Aircraft, with a commemorative award recognizing the companies’ long-standing partnership.
Air Tractor recently acquired Thrush Aircraft in a deal that merged the two companies founded by ag plane pioneer Leland Snow.
Mr. Hirsch used the occasion to look back and to point toward Air Tractor’s future. He told guests that development continues on the AT1002, a larger aircraft designed primarily for aerial firefighting operations. The prototype is being prepared for Federal Aviation Administration certification testing and is expected to resume flight testing soon.
In an interview following the ceremony, Mr. Hirsch said the new aircraft represents the next stage of growth for the company.
“It’s a bigger airplane,” he said. “Again, more focused on the firefighting world, but there are ag guys that will use that airplane.”
He added that largescale farming operations in countries such as Brazil continue to drive demand for larger and more capable aircraft.
Brazil remains one of Air Tractor’s most important international markets. Mr. Hirsch said there are still significant opportunities for growth in South America, noting that “there are still 1,000 airplanes to sell down there.”
For Olney, the celebration marked the latest chapter for a company founded on the vision of Leland Snow and built by generations of local workers whose airplanes now serve farms and firefighting operations around the world.